Vile thugs have attacked the home of a UKIP Kent county councillor, smearing obscene political hate slogans all over the walls of his garage last weekend. The attack occured in the Thanet South parliamentary constituency where Nigel Farage is standing, and may be part of a cowardly attempt to intimidate political campaigners in advance of the May elections.

Much unkind comment has been passed on George Galloway, MP for Bradford West. He is accused of being a "pimp for fascism", of operating an unregistered charity for personal gain, of sucking up to Saddam Hussein and, perhaps most damningly, of killing satire with a rusty crowbar and leaving it to rot in a ditch.

While Hollande may be elected France's first Socialist president in 17 ‎years, it was under another socialist, Francois Mitterand that the National Front first made ‎headways in response to austerity measures in the 1980s.